Press Release

Amazon Makes It Free for Developers to Build and Host Most Alexa Skills Using AWS

New program offers AWS promotional credits for developers to put
toward their Alexa skill

Tens of thousands of developers already building skills for Alexa

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar. 15, 2017--
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) today announced a new program that will make it
free for tens of thousands of Alexa developers to build and host most
Alexa skills using Amazon Web Services (AWS). Many Alexa skill
developers currently take advantage of the AWS Free Tier, which offers
one million AWS Lambda requests and up to 750 hours of Amazon Elastic
Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) compute time per month at no charge. However,
if developers exceed the AWS Free Tier limits, they may incur AWS usage
charges each month.

Now, developers with a published Alexa skill can apply to receive a $100
AWS promotional credit and can also receive an additional $100 per month
in AWS promotional credits if they incur AWS usage charges for their
skill – making it free for developers to build and host most Alexa
skills.

“There is already a large community of incredibly engaged developers
building skills for Alexa,” said Steve Rabuchin, Vice President, Amazon
Alexa. “Today, we’re excited to announce a new program that will free up
developers to create more robust and unique skills that can take
advantage of AWS services. We can’t wait to see what developers create
for Alexa.”

Hurricane Center, an Alexa skill that provides the latest storm
information based on data from governmental agencies, uses AWS Lambda.
“The customer response to Hurricane Center has been incredibly positive,
and Alexa has offered us an entirely new way to deliver the latest in
weather and storm information,” said Terren Peterson, Hurricane Center’s
developer and an experienced technology executive. “Now, if my skill
sees extensive use during hurricane season, I can be assured that those
scalable costs will be covered with this new program. It puts my mind at
ease and allows me to help more individuals be prepared for storms.”

Ryan Kroonenburg is a UK-based Solutions Architect and the founder of A
Cloud Guru, a training community on AWS, which just introduced courses
on creating Alexa skills. “Developers already know that building for
Alexa is free using AWS Free Tier with AWS Lambda, but what they can’t
plan for is how successful their skill will be,” said Ryan Kroonenburg.
“This program not only allows developers to create robust skills that
use AWS services like Amazon DynamoDB without worrying about costs, but
also ensures that popular skills that hit more than 1 million calls per
month are cost effective to maintain. It’s a big benefit for the Alexa
skill developer community.”

Darian Johnson, a technology consultant and Alexa skill developer, uses
AWS Lambda and Amazon DynamoDB for his Alexa skill, Virtual Librarian,
which provides reading recommendations based on bestseller lists, award
nominations, and user reviews. The skill won Most Useful API Mashup in a
recent Hackster.io contest. “AWS services, like Amazon DynamoDB, have
allowed me to create more robust skill experiences,” said Darian
Johnson. “Now that I’m able to freely create and scale skills, and have
the peace of mind that I’m covered if my skill takes off, I’m motivated
to see what next big skill I can create.”

Developers can visit developer.amazon.com/alexa to
apply for this program and learn more about building and hosting skills
using the Alexa Skills Kit and AWS.